Pressure from the US government may have forced Somalia
President Mohamed Farmaajo to announce a climbdown in tensions with
Kenya.
A day after Nairobi accused Somalia of violating its territorial integrity
by having its soldiers fight on Kenyan soil, President Farmaajo placed a
call to his Kenyan counterpart, Uhuru Kenyatta, offering to de-escalate
the tensions.
The Kenyan government did not speak
publicly of the event, even though senior diplomats in Nairobi confirmed
it was President Farmaajo who placed a call to President Kenyatta.
Villa
Somalia, the official residence of the Somalia President confirmed the
call, but it also did not indicate who initiated it.
“President
of the (Federal) Republic of Somalia and Kenyan President Uhuru
Kenyatta spoke over the phone and discussed the importance of working
jointly … to find a solution on boundary security and overall regional
stability,” Villa Somalia said in a statement on Twitter, in Somali
language.
“President Farmaajo and President Kenyatta
underlined that the security of the two nations is interconnected with
each other, and anything that could result in misunderstandingneeds to
be avoided.”
As it is, Somalia said it had agreed with Kenya to form a joint
committee to boost diplomatic and trade relations between the two
peoples. Yesterday though, sources told the Nation the call was placed
only after the US intervened.
For the past one month,
the Somali National Army (SNA) and the Jubbaland forces have been
plotting against each other, ostensibly after a local security minister
known as Abdirashid Janan fled jail in Mogadishu back to Jubbaland, and
into Kenya.
Those tensions erupted this week on Monday
after SNA and Jubbaland forces fought near Mandera in Bula-Hawo on the
border with Kenya.
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